Lego's trash day reef

[legomaniac]

FTS 10/17/2019

 

9/10/2019

 

8/22/2019

 

Long story short.  I found this tank in the trash down the street from my parents house(don't judge me).  I was dropping off my son so my wife and I could have a date night.  Drove by slow and checked it out.  It was a complete freshwater setup.  Tank, stand, filter, light and air pump.  It all looked like it was in perfect condition so I grabbed it.  Its been in my garage for a week filled with water.  No leaks.  Not a drop.  And everything works perfect.

 

Perfect start for a budget build!  I think the only things I will need to buy for this are going to be a light and some rock.  I have a few pumps laying around and I plan on fragging some coral from my main tank.

 

[legomaniac]

This will be a slow build, no much to see yet.  I have some acrylic sheet laying around so I am making an insert for surface skimming and filter media.  I'll post pics as I make progress.

[Christopher Marks]

Awesome, I love salvage projects like this! Tall tanks can present some unique challenges for lighting and aquascaping, but there's tons of possibilities! What are you hoping to keep in there?

[xM3THODx]

what a cool find! Unique, complete and no leaks, can't get any better than that!

[legomaniac]

8 minutes ago, Christopher Marks said:

Awesome, I love salvage projects like this! Tall tanks can present some unique challenges for lighting and aquascaping, but there's tons of possibilities! What are you hoping to keep in there?

I'm going to keep it simple.  I was thinking a column in the middle with a few shelves.  Then I'll frag a few of my zoas and maybe my acans.  Not sure about fish yet.  I was thinking just a clown and a firefish but I'm not sure.  I may just take one of the fish from my other tank.

[legomaniac]

For a light I was thinking a kessil a80, but I may save some money and go for a pixie 30.

[lizzyann]

Looks cool! How many gallons is it?

[legomaniac]

8 hours ago, lizzyann said:

Looks cool! How many gallons is it?

15 gallons. 

 

I'll get a couple new pics of the progress.  I built an internal overflow chamber out of acrylic so now it's like an all in one. 

[billygoat]

This is freakin' amazing! 😁 I hope it turns into an incredible, thriving reef, and that people who see pictures of it are amazed and ask you what kind of sweet tank that is and how they can get one. And you are just like "Well, actually...!" 😅

[legomaniac]

Testing the new setup.  It works perfect.  The waterline in the display ended up exactly even with the black trim on top.

 

 

 

[legomaniac]

Rockscape is almost done.  I still have to chisel a few bits here and there but I think it turned out nice.  Its a little more than 14" high so that will put the top rock about 4.5" under the water surface.

 

 

[legomaniac]

Finally set up and running in my home office.  I cut the front off of the stand and installed hinges and put it back on as a door so I would have storage under the tank.  I had to add some support inside the stand to make it solid.  I really like how this is coming together.  So far I have only spent $30 on this project.

[billygoat]

He found his tank in the trash... I can't get over it! 😂 Who in their right mind would throw something like this away!?

 

Super cool scape! I can't wait to see this come together.

[Ratvan]

4 hours ago, billygoat said:

He found his tank in the trash... I can't get over it! 😂 Who in their right mind would throw something like this away!?

 

Super cool scape! I can't wait to see this come together.

That saved me from looking where I could get one.

 

@legomaniacwhat are the dimensions of the tank.

You also have me skip diving looking for aquatic equipment

[legomaniac]

5 hours ago, Ratvan said:

That saved me from looking where I could get one.

 

@legomaniacwhat are the dimensions of the tank.

You also have me skip diving looking for aquatic equipment

It is 13"×13"×20".  

[Wonderboy]

Awesome find, awesome DIY work - following along  :]

[legomaniac]

The tank is coming along well.  I still need to buy a light for it before I add coral.  Right now I just have a few 1w 10k led bulbs wired up to the 3.3v side of a spare computer power supply set on a timer.

 

[Christopher Marks]

I love how this build turned out @legomaniac, I never considered having a half height AIO filter installed like that, what a clever solution! 

 

What kind of light do you have your eye on? DIY as well?

[legomaniac]

On 9/22/2019 at 6:22 PM, Christopher Marks said:

I love how this build turned out @legomaniac, I never considered having a half height AIO filter installed like that, what a clever solution! 

 

What kind of light do you have your eye on? DIY as well?

This has been a fun project.  One of the best parts about it is I realistically have only spent $50 on this so far.

 

For a light I am thinking of going with the pixie 30.  It's nice and cheap and I think it will work well for this tank.   For now I have a homemade fixture.  Its very simple.  10 royal blue and 5 cool white leds wired in parallel to the 3.3v side of an old computer power supply.  I tried to get a good picture of it with my ghetto light on, but it comes out way too blue in the pictures.

 

 

[legomaniac]

The tank is coming along well.  I bought the lumini pixie 30 light for it and so far I love it.  I have been snatching up snails and stars from my other tank and throwing them in.  I also fragged a few zoas and put them in.  So far I have spent $100 on this.  My next purchase will be a wave maker, probably the jebao sow-4.  After that I really shouldn't need to buy anything else.